A controversial Iranian track star-turned-Turkish-para-athlete has been stripped of a gold medal he won at the Paralympic Games in Paris and denied the right to compete in another event at the Games.

Sajjad Hashemi was one of Iran's fastest men and represented the country in the London Olympics in 2012 and the Rio Olympics in 2016. He holds the Iranian record in the 400 meters and 200 meters, as well as in the relay events in the 400 and 200 meters.

But he last competed for Iran in 2021 and since then gained Turkish citizenship, changed his name to Serkan Yildirim, and gained a spot on Turkey's Para-Athletic team due to impaired eyesight. At the age of 33 he made his stunning para-athletics debut, breaking the world record in the 100 meters T12 event with a time of 10.53 seconds at the World Para Athletics Championships in Tokyo in May.

Yildirim followed up on that success in the Paralympic Games in Paris on August 31, winning gold in the 100 meters T12, a disability class for track athletes with a visual impairment that requires them to run with a sighted guide. But on September 4, the World Para Athletics (WPA), the international federation responsible for the sport, announced that Yildirim had been disqualified.

"The results of Mr. Yildirim in the men’s 100m T12 medal event have been disqualified, with all resulting consequences," the WPA said in a statement. "The medals from the men’s 100m T12 medal event will be reallocated.”

In addition to losing his gold medal, Yildirim was barred from competing in a second event, the 400 meters T12.

Yildirim's disqualification resulted from a technicality stemming from a German regional court ruling that allowed him to compete in Paris. According to the WPA, it was notified on August 30 without notice of an "interim injunction issued by a single judge in the Bonn regional court" requiring Yildirim to be allowed to compete in his two events at the Paralympic Games, which began two days prior.

However, the "WPA was not provided with notice of the proceedings, or any opportunity to participate in them."

Because Yildirim's classification status was under a "sport class status 'review,'" which would make him ineligible to compete under WPA regulations, the governing body appealed the German court's injunction, while allowing him to compete pending the results of the appeal.

After a higher court ruled in favor of the WPA's appeal, the injunction was lifted, and the WPA immediately disqualified Yildirim.

The WPA said in its statement that it was "unable to provide further substantive comment at this point in time." The WPA responded to further questions by RFE/RL regarding the reasoning for the review of Yildirim's status by referring to its September 4 statement, while the International Paralympic Committee did not immediately respond.

The Turkish National Paralympics Committee did not respond to RFE/RL's questions about the case, nor did it respond to RFE/RL's questions last month regarding a growing controversy in Iranian media about Yildirim’s status as a para-athlete.

Following a story by RFE/RL's Radio Farda titled A Champion With Two Identities in July, questions had been raised about Yildirim's eligibility to compete as a para-athlete.

The story noted that Yildirim often appeared in sunglasses while running as a para-athlete for Turkey and in photos posted to an Instagram page under his new name. The account, which RFE/RL was unable to verify was overseen by Yildirim, offered no hints that he had previously competed for Iran.

The report also noted that, in recent images on an Instagram account under the name Sajjad Hashemi, the runner appeared without sunglasses or other signs of possible impairment and no trace of his activities as a para-athlete in Turkey. That Instagram account no longer exists.

Following the publication of Radio Farda's report, Hashemi responded to questions sent earlier to his Persian-language Instagram account asking about the apparent inconsistencies in the posts on two social media accounts.

'Relatively Severe' Disability

Responding in the comments section of Radio Farda's Instagram account, Hashemi said that he was an "athlete from Tabriz who, for personal reasons, competes for Turkey today."

He said he had changed his name after gaining Turkish citizenship and that the only reason he did not mention his past as an athlete competing for Iran was because "the audience of my sports condition is tied to the people of Turkey."

The athlete said he had "been visually impaired since 1986" and has had "relatively severe" disability status in Iran for more than two decades but preferred not to compete as a para-athlete. In other reports he explained that his poor vision caused him to jump the gun at the start of races.

He said that while he is not completely blind, his impairment had grown bad enough to earn him permission to compete as a para-athlete.

Subsequent reports in the Iranian media openly questioned the veracity of Hashemi/Yildirim's impairment and eligibility to compete in para-athletics, including quotes published by the conservative news site Tabnak in which Iranian athletes said they had not noticed anything irregular while training and competing with him and coaches who said the Iranian team could "not accept the hypothesis that he had vision problems."

In an interview published on August 19 by Tabnak, Hashemi/Yildirim said that "sometimes news is published only for views and clicks."

He said that some people unfortunately cannot distinguish the difference between being blind and visually impaired, but that he had had a disease that affected his eyesight since he was 10 that got progressively worse. By the Rio Olympics in 2016, he said, he knew his condition was bad enough to be eligible to compete as a para-athlete.

On August 20, the WPA said in comments to RFE/RL that "classification is carried out through a rigorous process to determine which athletes are eligible for para athletics, and then allocate eligible athletes into sport classes for competition."

Classification is granted following a thorough review of medical evaluations to confirm an eligible impairment, as well as in-person evaluations by certified professionals to "assess whether the athlete meets the minimum impairment criteria for the sport and to assign them a sport class."

While saying that the WPA cannot comment on individual athletes or cases due to confidentiality, the oversight body said that it can protest an athlete's sport classification at any time and "takes all allegations of classification-related misconduct very seriously."

International rights group Human Rights Watch (HRW) says reports of a detainee death in custody are a chance for Iran's recently inaugurated President Masud Pezeshkian to demonstrate a commitment to holding security forces to account for alleged abuses. In an e-mailed statement, HRW noted Pezeshkian's instructions to Iran's interior minister to establish an investigation into Mohammad Mirmusavi's death in late August after he was picked up in connection with a street brawl in Lahijan and allegedly tortured. "Mirmusavi's reported death under torture poses a critical choice for President Pezeshkian of whether to continue to allow gross impunity for security forces or to actually credibly investigate and hold any perpetrators accountable," HRW said. Pezeshkian won the election in July after running as a reformer and was sworn in on July 30 to replace hard-liner Ebrahim Raisi, who died along with Iran's foreign minister in a helicopter crash near the border with Azerbaijan in May.

Iran summoned Australia's ambassador in Tehran over the publication of online content it deemed "norm-breaking," the semiofficial ILNA news agency said on September 3, a day after state media said the post "promoted homosexuality." The post on the embassy's official Instagram account celebrated "Wear it Purple Day" and expressed dedication to creating "a supporting environment where everyone, especially LGBTQIA+ youth, can feel proud to be themselves." ILNA quoted Australian Ambassador Ian McConville as saying the post was not intended to insult the Iranian people and their values, and that the Islamic Republic was not mentioned in it. The post remains on the embassy's Instagram account. In 2022, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei described homosexuality as part of the "moral depravity" widespread in Western civilization.

As Iran threatens to attack Israel over the assassination of a leader of the U.S.- and EU-designated terrorist organization Hamas in the Iranian capital, its long-vaunted missile program offers one of the few ways for Tehran to strike back directly, but questions loom over just how much of a danger it poses. The program was behind Iran's unprecedented drone-and-missile assault on Israel in April, when Iran became the first nation to launch such a barrage since Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein lobbed Scud missiles at Israel in the 1991 Gulf War. But a new report by experts shared exclusively with the Associated Press suggests that one of Tehran's most advanced missiles is far less accurate than previously thought. The April assault showed "some ability to strike Israel,” said Sam Lair, a research associate at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies who worked on the analysis. But "if I were supreme leader, I would probably be a little disappointed.”

At least 93 people were executed in Iran in August, increasing the total for the year to more than 400, UN rights experts said on September 2. The UN Office for the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) expressed alarm over the monthly total -- a rise from 45 reported in July -- and called on Iran to immediately stop the execution of people facing the death penalty. It said 41 of those executed last month were due to drug offenses. "The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Iran is a party, restricts the application of the death penalty to 'most serious crimes,' understood as intentional killing," it said. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Radio Farda, click here.

The deadly May 19 crash of the helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was due to "complex climatic and atmospheric conditions," including heavy fog, the "final" report issued by a special commission said on September 1. The report by the general staff of the armed forces ruled out the possibility of the helicopter being targeted with "offensive and defense systems, electronic warfare, and the creation of magnetic fields and lasers." An August 22 report by the semiofficial Fars news agency said the helicopter had been "overweight," but the general staff rejected that claim and did not mention the weight issue in its latest report. Raisi and seven others were killed when the helicopter crashed on its way to the city of Tabriz on May 19 in heavy fog as it crossed a mountainous and forested area. To read the original report by RFE/RL's Radio Farda, click here.

Iran’s police force has fired the police commander in the city of Lahijan shortly after the death in custody of Mohammad Mirmusavi.

In announcement issued late on August 30, the national police command said the Lahijan commander was dismissed for “lack of sufficient supervision over the performance and behavior of employees.”

Earlier, rights activists published a video of Mirmusavi’s lifeless body and alleged that he had died “due to a severe beating.”

The August 30 police statement said officials were awaiting a final report on the “cause of the death of this citizen.”

A police statement earlier on August 30 said local police in the city in the northern Gilan Province had exhibited a “lack of anger control” in handling Mirmusavi. A police station commander and several officers were reportedly suspended.

Mirmusavi was arrested on August 24 after being involved in a fight. The Norway-based Kurdish rights group Hengaw said on August 28 that Mirmusavi died the day of his arrest, but it was not known whether his body had been handed over to relatives.

The incident occurred shortly before the second anniversary of the death in custody of Mahsa Amini in September 2022. Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman, died after being detained by Iran’s so-called morality police for allegedly violating the country’s strict Islamic dress code.

Her death sparked national outrage and a wave of anti-government protests.

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Iranian Protester Dies After Being Told 'You'll Never Leave Prison Alive'

Javad Ruhi, who was involved in the Amini protests, died in custody under unclear circumstances in September 2023. Ruhi’s supporters said he had been told he would “never leave prison alive.”

Following Ruhi’s death, Amnesty International called for those responsible to be “criminally investigated and held to account,” adding that his “death in custody again exposes the Iranian authorities’ assault on the right to life.”

Iran’s national police command said on August 30 that officers exhibited a "lack of anger control" while handling a man who died in custody earlier this week in the northern Gilan Province. The rights group Hengaw reported that Mohammad Mirmusavi was severely beaten by police in the city of Langarud following his arrest on August 24. The 36-year-old, who had been involved in a street brawl, died three days later. The allegations of police brutality prompted Iranian President Masud Pezeshkian to order an investigation. The national police command said "friction" between Musavi and officers led to his death. To read the original story by RFE/RL’s Radio Farda, click here.

Iran has further increased its stockpile of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels in defiance of international demands, a confidential report by the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog said on August 29. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in the report, seen by Reuters and the Associated Press, that as of August 17 Iran had increased its stockpile of uranium enriched up to 60 percent by 22.6 kilograms, totaling 164.7 kilograms. Uranium enriched up to 60 percent purity is just a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90 percent. The IAEA report says Tehran has also not reconsidered its September 2023 decision to ban the most experienced nuclear inspectors from monitoring its nuclear program and that IAEA surveillance cameras remain disrupted.

Two senior officers with Iran's powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) were killed in a gas leak in the central province of Isfahan, the IRGC's Sahib al-Zaman regional center announced in a statement on August 29.

Another 10 people were taken to the hospital with injuries after the incident at an IRGC workshop on the evening of August 28, the statement added, without specifying whether an explosion or gas inhalation caused the deaths and injuries.

The statement identified the two officers who were killed as Captain Mojtaba Nazari and Lieutenant Colonel Mukhtar Morshidi.

The statement did not say what activities were under way at the workshop affected by the incident and did not give its precise location nor the region of Isfahan Province where the incident occurred.

Iranian authorities usually give only skeletal details of such incidents.

The statement came amid heightened regional tensions following the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh on July 31 in Tehran.

Iran has accused Israel of killing Hanyieh, who was the political leader of the radical Islamist group Hamas, which has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union.

Israel, which has been engaged in a war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip since Hamas fighters stormed across the border into southern Israel on October 7, killing around 1,200 people and taking more than 250 people hostage, has not admitted officially that it was behind Hanyieh's death.

On April 19, Israel launched a limited air strike on a defense facility near the city of Isfahan, prompting Iranian air defenses to open fire.

The Israeli strike reportedly targeted an air-defense radar system at the defense facility, and satellite imagery suggested that an Iranian surface-to-air missile battery was struck.

The Israeli strike came in apparent response to an Iranian drone and missile strike in Israel, which was prompted by a strike by the Jewish state on the Iranian Consulate in Syria's capital, Damascus.

What do an Iranian aid worker, a labor activist, a political campaigner, and a protester have in common?

All four are women who have been charged in Iran with armed rebellion against the state -- which carries the death sentence -- in recent months.

Two of them -- aid worker Pakhshan Azizi and labor activist Sharifeh Mohammadi -- have already been sentenced to death. Political activist Varisheh Moradi and protester Nasim Gholami Simiyari are awaiting their sentences.

Besides Simiyari, all the women have been accused of being members of opposition Kurdish groups outside Iran. Azizi and Moradi are both members of Iran's Kurdish minority, which has long been suppressed.

There has been a rise in the number of women sentenced to death and executed since unprecedented antiestablishment protests erupted in 2022 following the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, an Iranian-Kurdish woman.

Fear Of Execution

Mohammadi, the labor activist, was sentenced to death in July. She was accused of membership in an independent labor union and a banned Kurdish separatist group based in neighboring Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region.

Her family has said she was not affiliated with any political organization inside or outside the country.

Mohammadi's cousin, Vida Mohammadi, told RFE/RL's Radio Farda that she was tortured in prison following her arrest in December and that she had spent several months in solitary confinement.

Moradi, the Kurdish political activist, was arrested in August 2023.

She was accused of being a member of the Free Life Party of Kurdistan (PJAK), the Iranian offshoot of Turkey's Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and a U.S.-designated terrorist group.

Azizi, the aid worker, was also arrested in August 2023 and accused of membership in PJAK, which she has denied. She was sentenced to death in July.

She spent time in Iraqi Kurdistan as well as in northeastern Syria, home to the Arab country's Kurdish minority, to help people displaced by the civil war and the fight against the Islamic State extremist group.

In a letter written from prison before her conviction, Azizi said working in refugee camps in Syria "could have been one of the biggest moral contributions to a society that has been oppressed for years."

She also denied membership in opposition groups, adding, "So whoever spends time [in Syria's Kurdish-majority region] is a member of PKK?"

Simiyari, the protester, was accused of taking part in the antiestablishment protests in 2022. She was arrested in May 2023. She has said she was tortured in prison and held in solitary confinement for prolonged periods.

'Silencing Dissent'

Human rights groups have condemned what they have called trumped-up charges against the four women.

Iranian activists say the charge of armed rebellion against the state is often used by the authorities against political prisoners and dissidents.

"Faced with a women's movement in Iran that refuses to back down, Islamic Republic authorities are now trying to threaten these women with the gallows, in a desperate attempt to silence dissent," said Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI).

Rights groups have repeatedly accused Iran of using the death penalty to instill fear in society in the wake of the 2022 protests.

Saeid Dehghan, a prominent Iranian human rights lawyer, said the four women have been charged with armed rebellion even though "they did not possess any weapons, and no weapons have been seized or recorded in their case."

"The activities of these citizens were civil in nature and had no connection to a rebellion against the 'foundation of the Islamic republic,' let alone being armed to justify the charge of rebellion," he said.

SEE ALSO:

Iran Intensifies Pressure On Iraq To Extradite Iranian-Kurdish Leaders

Activists fear the four women could be the next victims of Iran's surge in executions.

At least 345 people have been executed so far this year, according to the Norway-based Iran Human Rights group.

CHRI said the fact that two of the women are Kurds reflected the "Islamic republic's continued disproportionate use of the death penalty against the country's minorities."

Iran's Kurdistan region was the scene of some of the most violent crackdowns during the 2022 protests.

In recent years, Tehran has upped the ante in its efforts to go after exiled opposition Iranian-Kurdish groups that it considers to be terrorist organizations.

Iran’s pro-reform President Masud Pezeshkian has appointed lawmaker Abdolkarim Hosseinzadeh as his deputy for rural development and underprivileged areas.

The appointment, announced late on August 26, makes Hosseinzadeh the first-ever Sunni cabinet member in an Iranian government since the Islamic republic came to power in 1979.

In his decree, Pezeshkian said he tapped Hosseinzadeh for the job because of his “commitment and valuable experiences.”

Pezeshkian tasked his deputy with enhancing the living conditions in villages and “improving the indicators of rural development.”

Hosseinzadeh, 44, has been representing the northwestern cities of Naqadeh and Oshnavieh in parliament since 2012.

Sunni Muslims make up around 5-10 percent of the population in Shi'ite-majority Iran, according to government estimates. They have very rarely held key posts since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

After winning the July 5 runoff presidential election, Pezeshkian said he sought to form a “national unity” government. Members of his team later said that included naming a relatively young cabinet which represented Iran’s ethnic and religious diversity.

But Pezeshkian came under fire for failing to include members of underrepresented groups, including Sunni Muslims, in his proposed ministerial picks earlier this month.

All 19 ministerial nominees were approved by the conservative-dominated parliament last week in a move not seen since 2001.

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Iranians Decry The Demise Of Republicanism After Cabinet Controversy

Ahead of the vote of confidence in the cabinet, Pezeshkian told lawmakers that he had selected its members in “coordination” with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. This led many to conclude that Pezeshkian’s cabinet had been picked by the supreme leader and lamented what they said were the limits of the president’s powers in Iran.

Pezeshkian’s cabinet also includes three women, including Roads Minister Farzaneh Sadeq, who is only the second woman in the Islamic republic’s history to be named a minister.

The other two women are Zahra Behruz-Azar, Pezeshkian’s deputy for women and family affairs, and Shina Ansari, a deputy to the president and head of the Department of the Environment.

Reviving the Iran nuclear deal remains off the agenda for the Biden administration, a U.S. State Department spokesperson said on August 26, as Tehran called for “new negotiations” to update the agreement before it can be revived.

Iran’s new foreign minister, Abbas Araqchi, said last week that the agreement “cannot be revived in its current form” due to sunset clauses that have expired and insisted that new talks are needed to resuscitate the agreement.

However, a State Department spokesperson told RFE/RL that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), as the 2015 nuclear accord is formally known, “is not on the table right now.” The United States unilaterally exited the deal in 2018 under then-U.S. President Donald Trump.

“The United States will ensure one way or another that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon, and we are prepared to use all elements of national power to ensure that outcome,” the spokesperson said.

Still, Washington views “diplomacy as the best way to achieve a sustainable, effective solution,” the spokesperson said.

During a televised interview, Araqchi conceded that renegotiating the agreement would be challenging.

“This document definitely needs to be reopened and parts of it needs to be changed. That is no easy task because once you reopen a document, putting it back together will be challenging,” he said in a live television interview.

Complicating matters further are the November presidential election in the United States and ongoing wars in Ukraine and Gaza.

Araqchi said the Ukraine war had “deeply impacted how Europeans view security,” while the Gaza conflict has “completely upended the situation in the region.”

The minister, who was one of the architects of the deal between Iran and six major world powers, said the format of talks since 2021 to revive the agreement can no longer work.

“New negotiations are needed,” Araqchi added.

The deal restricted Iran’s nuclear program and capped uranium enrichment at 3.67 percent. In return, the United States lifted sanctions that had suffocated Iran’s economy and energy sectors.

But Trump withdrew the United States from the agreement in 2018 and reimposed sanctions that had been lifted under its terms. Iran retaliated by gradually scaling back its commitments and is currently enriching uranium at 60 percent.

Araqchi, then a deputy foreign minister, led Iran’s negotiating team when Tehran and Washington started indirect talks in April 2021 to restore the agreement. Negotiations paused when hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi came to power in Iran and a new team of negotiators entered the fray.

But talks were suspended in September 2022 in the wake of nationwide protests that rocked Iran for months. Hundreds were killed in the unrest as the authorities cracked down on demonstrations.

Iran's new president, Masud Pezeshkian, who succeeded Raisi after he died in a helicopter crash earlier this year, has vowed to engage the West.

But the ultimate decision-maker in Iran is Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has praised efforts by conservatives to expand the country's nuclear program.

Israel has reportedly launched new strikes at Hizballah, which has been designated at terrorist organization by the United States, just inside Lebanon a day after a heavy exchange of missile and drone attacks between the two foes that Iran claimed showed a shift in the balance of power.

State media reported on August 26 that Israel targeted the border village of Tair Harfa and an area near Sidon in Lebanon a day after Hizballah launched scores of rockets and drones against targets in northern and central Israel in the early hours of August 25. The attack came shortly after Israel carried out what it described as preemptive strikes targeting Hizballah’s rocket launchers.

There were no immediate reports of casualties from Israel's strikes on August 26.

Iran said on August 26 that the exchange of fire, which marked one of the largest clashes to hit the Middle East since war broke out in the Gaza Strip last October, showed Israel has lost not only its ability to anticipate small-scale attacks but also its deterrent power.

“Despite the full backing of its supporters, including the United States, Israel has lost its deterrent power and ability to predict the time and place of even a limited and calibrated attack,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani wrote on X, referring to the large-scale attack on Israel by Iran’s Lebanese ally Hizballah a day earlier.

“The occupying regime has always sought territorial expansion, but now has to defend itself within the occupied territories,” Kanani added. “Fear has been embedded in the homes of the residents of the occupied lands.”

Israeli officials said the preemptive attack prevented the launch of “thousands” of rockets. Hizballah claimed to have launched more than 320 rockets and drones but Israel put the figure at around 150.

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Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah alleged that the group’s operation was calibrated to ensure it did not trigger a full-scale conflict.

Addressing Nasrallah and Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel's preemptive operation was "another step toward changing the situation in the north and returning our residents safely to their homes."

Hizballah said its operation was “phase one” of its retaliation for the killing of Fuad Shukr, widely believe to be Hizballah’s second-most powerful person. Shukr was killed in an Israeli strike in Beirut on July 30.

Hours after Shukr’s assassination, the political leader of the EU- and U.S.-designated Palestinian terrorist group Hamas was killed in Tehran. Iran vowed to avenge Ismail Haniyeh and accused Israel of killing him. Israel has neither denied nor claimed responsibility.

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Israel And Hizballah Edge Closer To Conflict Neither Side Desires

In his speech, Nasrallah said one reason why Hizballah took nearly a month to hit Israel was because it was discussing with Iran and other allies about whether to carry out a coordinated attack on Israel or attack separately.

Pressure has been growing on Iran to deliver on its promised attack against Israel to avenge Haniyeh.

During a phone call on August 25 with Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, Iran’s top diplomat Abbas Araqchi insisted that a “measured and well-calculated” response will come.

“We do not fear escalation, yet do not seek it -- unlike Israel,” Araqchi told his Italian counterpart.

Israel and its Iran-backed Lebanese foe Hizballah insist they do not seek a full-scale conflict, but they continue to take steps toward war.

It took the U.S.-designated terrorist group Hizballah nearly a month to deliver on its promised attack against Israel for the killing of its most senior commander, Fuad Shukr.

But Israel saw the attack coming, taking what the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) described as preemptive strikes against Hizballah's rocket launchers on August 25, apparently reducing the scale of the Iran-backed group's offensive.

Raz Zimmt, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, said that while neither side wants an all-out war, each party is "very determined to impose its own equation on the other."

They continue to take risks by attacking each other, but mistakes and miscalculations could spark the very conflict they want to avoid, Zimmt warned.

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Why Is Iran Delaying Its Vowed Attack On Israel?

"This ongoing, so-called limited conflict between Israel and Hizballah is very difficult to manage," he added.

The IDF says around 100 fighter jets took part in its preemptive operation, while Hizballah claims it launched more than 300 rockets and drones against Israel. If the numbers are true, this marks the biggest exchange of fire between Israel and Hizballah since the 2006 war, which ended in a stalemate.

Without Israel's preemptive strikes, the scale of Hizballah's attack would have been devastating, Zimmt said. That would have prompted a "severe" Israeli response, he added.

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Despite the heavy exchange of fire, the attacks do not -- at least on the surface -- seem to have affected negotiations to establish a cease-fire in Gaza and secure the release of Israeli hostages from Hamas, which is designated as a terrorist group by the European Union and the United States.

Zimmt said while he is "not optimistic" about the prospects of a cease-fire, such a deal could help de-escalate tensions -- although, even that, he added, is only speculation.

Hizballah Going Solo?

The Middle East has been on edge for weeks, expecting not just an attack on Israel from Hizballah but also from Iran.

Iran vowed to retaliate against Israel after a bombing in uptown Tehran killed Hamas's political leader, Ismail Haniyeh. Israel has not commented on the attack.

Haniyeh was killed hours after Shukr, widely seen as the second-most powerful person in Hizballah, was killed in an Israeli air strike in Beirut.

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Full-Blown War Between Israel And Iran-Backed Hizballah 'Not In The Interests' Of Tehran

Many assessed that an Iranian attack on Israel would come in concert with strikes from Hizballah.

But the Lebanese group, which is more an Iranian partner than a proxy, appears to have grown tired of waiting and struck out on its own.

"It is very important to note that Hizballah didn't wait for the Iranians," Zimmt said, arguing that one reason why Hizballah waited so long to launch its retaliatory strike was that it had hoped to attack Israel alongside Iran.

However, the Lebanese group likely concluded that a direct Iranian strike was not coming, at least for now.

"This might have some impact -- perhaps not immediately -- on Hizballah's relationship with Iran," Zimmt said.

Azerbaijan is laying the groundwork to boost its ambitions in the South Caucasus and is looking to China for help.

In just two months, Baku's ties with Beijing have quickly moved forward as the oil-rich country has inched closer politically and economically through a series of agreements that could boost China's presence in the region and open the door to newfound Chinese investment into Azerbaijan.

The series of recent moves began on July 3 when Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Astana and declared they had upgraded bilateral ties through a new strategic partnership that calls for them to work closer together economically, militarily, and politically.

A few weeks later, Baku applied to upgrade its status within the SCO from dialogue partner to observer, setting the stage to potentially become a full member.

And then on August 20, Azerbaijan announced it had applied to join the BRICS group of emerging economies led by China and Russia that also includes Brazil, India, and South Africa as founding members.

Taken together, the collection of moves is part of China's growing momentum in the region as an investor and trade partner since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, which has left governments and shipping companies looking for alternatives due to sanctions on Russia that have left its vast rail network -- previously the main route between China and Europe for overland trade -- less viable.

For Azerbaijan, which is at a crossroads for trade on the Caspian Sea, this has led to new energy for the so-called Middle Corridor, the alternative trade route that bypasses Russia by cutting through Central Asia and the South Caucasus to connect to the European Union, and seen new investment worth billions of dollars.

"The Middle Corridor is a key issue and Baku needs Beijing's support,” Zaur Shiriyev, a nonresident scholar at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, told RFE/RL. "The immediate concern is that the success of the Middle Corridor depends on a steady flow of goods from China to establish a strong China-Europe route in the long term.”

A Series Of New Deals And Beyond

Attracting more Chinese interest and investment in the Middle Corridor is a main priority for Azerbaijan and is at the center of the strategic partnership agreement signed in July.

China pledged in the document to help develop and use the trade route and Baku is hoping that it will lead to more Chinese investment in infrastructure, which would make the route more competitive and strengthen Azerbaijan's role as a central hub in the region.

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But Baku's "cooperation menu with Beijing is extensive,” says Shiriyev, with Azerbaijan eyeing further deals in green energy, advanced technology, and military purchases.

The Azerbaijani government has also expressed a desire for Chinese companies to set up a regional manufacturing hub for electric vehicles in the country and has been actively calling for more Chinese investment.

Bilateral trade between the two countries is also on the rise, although heavily slanted in Beijing's favor, with China overtaking Turkey as Azerbaijan's second-largest source of imports (behind Russia) with $3.1 billion worth of goods in 2023, a 40 percent rise from the previous year.

"Chinese companies are already participating in the diversification of Azerbaijan's economy, but we expect more,” Hikmet Hajiyev, Aliyev's foreign policy adviser, told the Chinese state broadcaster CGTN during a March interview in Beijing.

Increased trade and investment appear to be motivating the recent moves by Baku as the country looks to diversify away from the hydrocarbon wealth that has underpinned its economy for decades.

Another part of the strategic partnership agreement calls for China's support for Azerbaijan's full membership in the World Trade Organization and the application for BRICS membership could also open new markets. While there is no clear procedure for admitting new members or an application timeline for joining BRICS, it expanded in January to also include Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia, and Egypt -- and has a long list of other countries who have expressed an interest in applying.

"Membership could offer Baku the opportunity to expand access to the large and rapidly growing markets of the BRICS countries, potentially creating new opportunities for bilateral trade agreements and investments in Azerbaijan's economy,” Shiriyev said.

A New Balance Of Power

The appeal of closer ties with Beijing isn't limited to trade and investment, says Vadim Dubnov, a regional expert at RFE/RL's Echo of the Caucasus, who notes that China is also an increasingly important partner for Baku to lean on in the region's fast-changing geopolitical environment.

A decreasing footprint from Western powers combined with Russia being weakened and distracted by its war in Ukraine has given Azerbaijan more room to maneuver in foreign affairs. This has led to Baku deepening ties with Turkey and Iran and inviting China in to play a larger role.

"Aliyev is trying to reposition himself and find a new balance with all the major players in the South Caucasus,” said Dubnov. "Stronger ties with China allow Baku to not sit totally in any one camp.”

But the warming ties between Baku and Beijing are not a one-sided process.

Since Azerbaijan's success in its 2020 war with Armenia, China's interest in the South Caucasus has grown and Beijing hopes that Baku's stronger regional standing will lead to more stability and opportunities for more Chinese investment and influence in the region, such as additional trade routes connecting Azerbaijan to Turkey through Armenia.

Azerbaijan is also eyeing other opportunities to use its geographic position to its advantage.

While the Middle Corridor makes up an East-West trade route that bypasses Russia, the shake up to global trade brought by the war in Ukraine has also created new interest in other alternatives, including those that look to cut out the West.

As the Middle Corridor has grown, Moscow has looked to drum up investment in the International North–South Transport Corridor that flows south from Russia to Azerbaijan and then aims to connect to Iran and India.

China, which has strong trade ties with Central Asia and the EU as well as Russia and Iran, has expressed support for both the Middle Corridor and the North-South route, which Azerbaijan is looking to capitalize on given its central position in both.

"If Baku previously was able to use its energy resources [as leverage] in its relations with the West, international trade corridors are also now tools with strategic importance in Azerbaijan's foreign policy,” Nurlan Aliyev, a lecturer at the University of Economics and Human Sciences in Warsaw, told RFE/RL.

RFE/RL Armenian Service correspondent Lusine Musayelyan contributed reporting to this article.

Meta says it has warned U.S. presidential campaigns to be wary after it discovered an Iran-linked hacking attempt using the WhatsApp messaging service. The announcement is the latest from a tech giant of hacking threats ahead of the November election between Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump, after Google and Microsoft earlier uncovered similar attempts attributed to Iran.WhatsApp accounts linked to an Iranian "threat actor" sent messages pretending to be technical support for AOL, Google, Yahoo, or Microsoft, according to a Meta blog post. Accounts involved in what appeared to be "social engineering" were blocked, Meta said.

Germany’s decision to select Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof’s latest movie to represent the country in the 2025 Oscars in the international feature category shows that Iranian independent cinema is making strides, the director has told RFE/RL's Radio Farda.

Rasoulof’s The Seed Of The Sacred Fig was selected by an independent jury of experts from among 13 submissions, according to German Films, which represents German cinema interests abroad.

In a brief message to Radio Farda on August 22, the Golden Bear-winning director said he was “happy” for various reasons.

“First of all, the voice of Iranian independent cinema appears to be on a new path,” said Rasoulof, who fled Iran earlier this year.

“Secondly, the movie offers a picture close to the reality about the women's protests in Iran,” he added, referring to the ‘Women, Life, Freedom’ protests in 2022.

The protests were sparked by the death in morality-police custody of Mahsa Amini, a young Kurdish-Iranian woman who was detained for allegedly flaunting the country’s strict dress code for women.

The unrest lasted for months, with rights groups estimating that more than 500 protesters were killed as security forces clamped down on the demonstrations.

Rasoulof said he was also happy because the movie’s submission as Germany’s hope for the Oscars was a recognition of the efforts and hardships endured by the cast and crew of the film in Iran.

“This highlights the efforts of a group that tried to be an honest narrator of the truth despite the restrictions,” he said.

Rasoulof revealed in May that he had fled Iran after being informed that he had been sentenced to eight years in prison and flogging on security-related charges.

An outspoken critic of the Iranian establishment’s crackdown on protests, Rasoulof was convicted of “collusion to act against national security.”

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The cast and crew of The Seed Of The Sacred Fig had been under pressure by the Iranian authorities to pull the movie from the Cannes Film Festival.

Rasoulof attended the festival after leaving Iran, receiving a 12-minute standing ovation after the screening of his film. The movie won multiple awards at Cannes, including the Competition's Special Jury Prize and the Prix Francois Chalais for Best Film.

The film tells the story of an Iranian judge struggling with paranoia. His mistrust intensifies after his gun goes missing amid growing nationwide protests. He suspects his wife and daughters of stealing his weapon and imposes heavy restrictions at home.

Rasoulof won the Golden Bear -- the Berlin Film Festival’s top prize -- in 2020 for his film There Is No Evil, which tells four stories loosely connected to the themes of the death penalty in Iran and personal freedoms under oppression. He was barred by Tehran from travelling to Germany to receive his award.

Iran’s Intelligence Ministry said in a statement on August 23 that its agents had arrested 14 members of Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K), which is a branch of the IS militant group based in Afghanistan, the semiofficial ISNA news agency reported. It did not specify when the arrests occurred but said all 14 had entered Iran illegally and “planned to carry out terrorist operations.” Seven suspects were arrested in the southern Fars Province while the rest were apprehended in the northern provinces of Tehran and Alborz, and Khuzestan Province in the southwest. In January, IS-K claimed a deadly twin bombing in southern Iran that killed 95 people.

Iran is striking out left and right in an attempt to interfere with the U.S. presidential election in November with the help of slick-looking websites, hackers, and phishing attacks.

The objective of the sophisticated campaign, U.S. intelligence and cyberthreat experts say, is to fuel distrust in the U.S. democratic system and to exploit and heighten social divisions.

As the November 5 election nears, Iranian hackers have been accused of targeting the e-mail accounts of both the Republican candidate, former President Donald Trump, and his Democratic rival, Kamala Harris.

U.S. intelligence assessments and researchers say both political campaigns have been targeted by phishing attacks carried out by a group with suspected ties to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), the elite branch of the armed forces.

And experts say an Iranian network dubbed "Storm-2035" operates multiple inauthentic news sites on the web and social media that use AI-generated content to agitate conservative and liberal dissidence.

"Iran’s main goal in this space is to sow discord and chaos and to undermine the integrity of the United States' electoral system," said Simin Kargar, a senior nonresident fellow at the Washington-based Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab).

"If they can pull this off, even at a very small scale, it would be a testament to Iran’s long-held rhetoric that democracy is a 'flawed Western concept' and even the U.S., which has often accused Iran of rigged elections, is susceptible to election-related controversies," she added in written comments.

At least four "Iran-run covert news sites masquerading as news outlets" operated by Storm-2035 have been identified by the Microsoft Threat Analysis Center (MTAC) as "actively engaging U.S. voter groups on opposing ends of the political spectrum with polarizing messaging on issues such as the U.S. presidential candidates, LGBTQ rights, and the Israel-Hamas conflict."

In an August 9 report, the MTAC singled out three of the sites by name-- Even Politics (evenpolitics.com), Nio Thinker (niothinker.com), and Savannah Time (savannahtime.com).

With Trump and Harris in a tight race 11 weeks before the vote, Even Politics was publishing content focused on the ongoing war in Gaza, alleged threats against democracy, and the influence of religious groups. Much of the content on the site appeared to be steered against Trump.

Nio Thinker, which emerged shortly after the beginning of the Gaza war in October, has since shifted its focus from that conflict to the U.S. election. Its content caters to "liberal audiences" with "sarcastic, long-winded articles insulting Trump," according to the MTAC, including one calling him an "opioid-pilled elephant in the MAGA china shop."

Hot-Button Topics

The site also goes after Harris's alleged unwavering support for Israel, the vice-presidential nominees for both parties, and stokes the flames on hot-button topics like corporate influence and immigration.

One article presented as an op-ed lays out "Why Harris's Stance On Palestine Cost Her My Vote." A story titled "J.D. Vance And The Rise Of The Sperm Cups" mocks Trump's running mate over his "family values" positioning, which it described as a "one-way ticket back to the 1950s." And another written from "an FBI agent's perspective" alleged that Harris's running mate, Tim Walz, has a "'longstanding connection' to China and its government."

The third site, Savannah Time, presents itself as originating from the city of Savannah in the key swing state of Georgia. That site, according to Darren Linvill, co-director of the Watt Family Innovation Center Media Forensics Hub, is clearly intended to appeal to the right, with stories bashing Harris and her supporters.

Harris's economic policies are often in the crosshairs of Savannah Time, with one article describing them as "fiscally reckless crayon economics that would make even a drunken sailor blush." Another accuses her of "a dangerous flirtation with communist-style price controls."

Most of the articles published by the three sites are written by "staff," and the Open AI artificial intelligence research company said in an August 16 report that Storm-2035 relied heavily on ChatGPT to generate its content.

Experts suggest that in many ways Iran's approach to influencing the U.S. electoral system mirrors that of Russia, which employed troll farms to flood social media with disinformation and divisive content during the 2016 presidential election, broadly favoring Trump over Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

"What we've seen from these websites suggests a sort of Russian-style [campaign], where they have set up websites that are targeting communities on both the left and the right," Linvill said.

"[They want] to potentially use those websites to target these communities to spread disinformation and perhaps make our politics more extreme than they would have been otherwise and facilitate the process of us fighting amongst ourselves," he added.

'Remarkably Well Done'

Linvill also said the Iranian websites in some ways surpass their Russian counterparts, and have improved over the years.

"They're really remarkably well done. They clearly use AI in really interesting ways to create their content, but they're really well put together," Linvill said.

Iranian efforts to influence the U.S. electoral process have been observed since as early as 2018, when inauthentic personas were used to impersonate candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives and to pose as journalists, according to the cyberthreat intelligence specialists Mandiant.

Analysts suggest that the campaign increased in scope following the assassination of IRGC commander Qasem Soleimani in a U.S. air strike in Iraq in January 2020 under then-President Trump.

Two Iranian nationals, for example, were charged by the United States for their involvement in a cyberenabled campaign to influence U.S. voters in the 2020 election, which Trump lost to President Joe Biden.

Mandiant noted that Iranian actors sent threatening e-mails to voters in the United States during the 2020 campaign. Mandiant and other cyberexperts also said that Iran used media sites like Even Politics to attempt to influence the 2022 midterm elections.

Aside from the use of media platforms, U.S. intelligence agencies and cyberthreat experts say that Iran is currently making use of hacking and phishing attacks in an attempt to disrupt the November presidential vote.

The Trump campaign on August 10 blamed the Iranian government for a hack of some of its internal communications, prompting a federal investigation.

A joint assessment by three U.S. intelligence bodies released on August 19 confirmed "increasingly aggressive Iranian activity during this election cycle," including the "recently reported activities to compromise former President Trump’s campaign."

This came after the U.S. director of national intelligence in July suggested that Tehran's efforts to influence the election was "probably because Iranian leaders want to avoid an outcome they perceive would increase tensions with the United States."

Considering the assassination of Soleimeni, the unilateral U.S. withdrawal from the nuclear accord with Iran, and the souring of relations under the Trump administration, many experts suggest that Tehran would not favor another Trump presidency. The Trump campaign, following the hacking it blamed on Iran, suggested that it was due to past hostilities with Tehran.

'Hyper-Polarized Climate'

Kargar of DFRLab said in written comments that she had not "seen enough evidence on favoring one candidate over another." But Kargar said that “given Trump’s first term policies vis-a-vis Iran, it would only make sense that Iran would want to avoid a second Trump term at any cost."

But Harris's campaign has also been targeted. The joint U.S. intelligence report this month also said that it was confident that "the Iranians have through social engineering and other efforts sought access to individuals with direct access to the presidential campaigns of both political parties."

And a Google threat analysis group on August 14 said that APT42 had used phishing campaigns in an attempt to compromise "the personal [e-mail] accounts of individuals affiliated with President Biden, Vice President Harris, and former President Trump, including current and former government officials and individuals associated with the campaigns."

Tehran is going after both the Republican and the Democratic camps because "Iran is looking for ways to sow discord and drive wedges between different communities of voters in a hyper-polarized climate," Kargar said.

Russia, Kargar added, did the same in 2016.

The bigger question is whether Iran's campaign has had any impact in an election that is already divisive on its own.

Little is known about the hacking attacks confirmed by U.S. intelligence, although Trump wrote on social media that the hackers were "only able to get publicly available information" and U.S. media did not publish documents purportedly from within Trump's campaign that were sent anonymously.

In the case of the inauthentic websites operated by Iran's Storm-2035 campaign, Linvill said that "nobody's talking about them."

"It seems likely that they had been set up for some future purpose to help some future narrative laundering campaign that hasn't been undertaken yet," Linvill said.

Such campaigns usually have a very specific goal in mind or a specific story that the actor wants to spread, Livill said, but "we just can't say what that might be."

Linvill said he expects that to be cleared up as the election gets closer.

The Seed Of The Sacred Fig, a film by exiled Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof, has been chosen to represent Germany in the competition for Best International Feature Film at the 2025 Academy Awards, German Films announced on August 22. German Films, which represents German cinema interests abroad, said that an independent jury of experts chose Rasoulof's film from among 13 submissions. The Seed Of The Sacred Fig is "a psychological portrait of Iran's theocracy which is built on violence and paranoia," according to the jury statement. Rasoulof told RFE/RL’s Radio Farda from Berlin where he now lives that “the movie offers a picture close to the reality about the women's protests in Iran." To read the original story on RFE/RL's Radio Farda, click here.

When Iran’s reformist President Masud Pezeshkian submitted nominees for his 19-member Cabinet, many expected the hard-line parliament to reject at least some of his picks.

But in a rare move, lawmakers accepted the entire slate of ministers without a change, the first time a president has managed the feat in over two decades.

Pezeshkian hailed the move as a win for consensus in the divided country. But critics said the unanimous approval of his cabinet showed the limits of the president’s powers in Iran’s clerically dominated political system.

That is because Pezeshkian, addressing parliament before they voted on his nominees, said that the names were selected in “coordination” with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and preapproved by him.

Some Iranians saw Pezeshkian’s comments as an admission that the government is controlled by the supreme leader, who has the final say on all important matters of the state.

SEE ALSO:

'Reformist Loyalist' Masud Pezeshkian Is Iran's New President. Here's What To Expect.

Hamid Aboutalebi, a former Iranian ambassador to Australia, said Pezeshkian may have “won the battle in parliament” but had “lost [Iran’s] century-long war for constitutionalism and republicanism.”

Some Iranian social media users said the presidency had lost all legitimacy and Pezeshkian was effectively a prime minister reporting to Khamenei.

“Get rid of this meaningless position of president and appoint a prime minister,” said political activist Hossein Razzaq.

Razzaq added that Khamenei should pick the head of government so that public funds are not spent on holding “ridiculous elections for show" in Iran, where votes are tightly controlled.

In many countries, including Iran, a president is elected by the people. A prime minister, a role that does not exist in Iran, is typically chosen by parliament or the head of state.

Some Iranians argued that Khamenei had finally realized what they said was his yearslong goal of abolishing the presidency and installing a prime minister, arguing that in Pezeshkian, he had accomplished it without the need to change the constitution.

In 2011, Khamenei said there would be “nothing wrong in changing” the system of government if “one day in the distant future it is felt that a parliamentary system is better than a presidential system for appointing officials.”

Getting rid of the presidency would further widen Khamenei’s powers.

Iran abolished the position of prime minister in 1989, a decade after the Islamic Revolution. The prime minister’s duties were divided between the president and the newly established position of first vice-president.

Under the Islamic republic, the prime minister was nominated by the president and approved by parliament. He served as the head of the government.

The General Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces has rejected a media report saying that the helicopter crash in May in which Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi died was caused by weather conditions and the aircraft's inability to handle the weight it was carrying.

Iran's semiofficial Fars news agency reported on August 21 that the investigation into the helicopter crash had been "fully completed by the regulatory and security institutions."

Fars quoted an unnamed security source informed of the final investigation as saying there was "absolute certainty that what happened was an accident." The monitoring and security institutions "did not identify a suspicious factor" in their final assessments, Fars reported.

The two reasons given for the crash were bad weather conditions and the helicopter’s inability to handle the weight of extra passengers that exceeded safety protocols, the source added.

According to the Fars report, the chopper was carrying two passengers beyond the recommended capacity when it crashed.

But after the Fars report, the General Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces "strongly rejected" the reported findings, saying in a statement carried by state media that it was "distorted and discredited."

The headquarters said the claim that the helicopter was carrying more people than its capacity was "fundamentally false.”

The Bell 212 helicopter had a capacity of 15, including one pilot, according to the manufacturer. Raisi and seven others were killed when the helicopter crashed on its way to the city of Tabriz on May 19 in heavy fog as it crossed a mountainous and forested area.

Some reports at the time noted that because of international sanctions it has been difficult for Iran to obtain parts for its aging helicopter fleet. The Bell 212 was made in the United States and procured by Iran from the United States before the 1979 Iranian revolution.

Iran elected a new president, reformist Masud Pezeshkian, in June and on August 21 the country's hard-line parliament approved his 19-member Cabinet, accepting the entire slate of ministers without a change for the first time since 2001.

With reporting by AFP

Iran's hard-line parliament approved moderate reformist Masud Pezeshkian's 19-member Cabinet, accepting the entire slate of ministers without a change for the first time since 2001.

The vote on August 21 included the appointment of 61-year-old career diplomat Abbas Araghchi -- a member of the negotiating team that reached a nuclear deal with world powers in 2015 -- as Iran’s new foreign minister.

Pezeshkian, a doctor and a former health minister, defeated ultraconservative hard-liner Saeed Jalili in a July 5 runoff vote and was sworn in earlier this month.

The election was triggered by the death of President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash in May.

Pezeshkian has called for "constructive relations" with Western countries and favors reviving the 2015 deal that fell apart after then-President Donald Trump unilaterally pulled the United States out of the deal in 2018.

Iran's acute economic doldrums have since worsened under the weight of the harsh sanctions.

Pezeshkian has also said he supports the principles of the Islamic republic and said that he plans to follow Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's policies.

He has also questioned Iran's methods of enforcing the Islamic head scarf for women following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in 2022 while in the custody of Iran's dreaded morality police for allegedly wearing her hijab improperly.

He has also said that while the hijab law should be observed, "there should never be any intrusive or inhumane behavior toward women."

Iran says it will take its time in its response to the July 31 killing in Tehran of Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of the U.S.- and EU-designated Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.

Iran has kept the world on edge since it promised to strike Israel -- which it blames for the attack that killed Haniyeh -- a move experts say could plunge the region into an all-out war.

Israel has neither confirmed nor denied carrying out the attack. But it has vowed to kill leaders of Hamas over the group’s October 7 attack inside Israeli territory that killed 1,200 people. Around 250 others were taken hostage, some of whom have since been released.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said after the assassination that Iran was "duty-bound" to avenge its "guest."

SEE ALSO:

Why Is Iran Delaying Its Vowed Attack On Israel?

"Time is in our favor, and the waiting period for this response could be long," Ali Mohammad Naini, a spokesman for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), said on August 30, adding any response "may not be a repetition of past operations."

The 62-year-old Haniyeh was killed while he was in Tehran to attend the July 30 inauguration ceremony for Iran's new president, Masud Pezeshkian.

Tehran has rebuffed calls by Western nations to show restraint, insisting it has a legitimate right to respond to the killing of Haniyeh on Iranian territory.

The killing of Haniyeh and talk of retaliation comes as Washington continues to push to get Hamas and Israel to agree to a temporary cease-fire and a deal to release hostages being held in Gaza. Senior officials from the United States, Israel, Qatar, and Egypt are engaged in the latest round of talks to secure such a deal.

Naini did not comment on how Iran may respond to the attack on Haniyeh, but his reference to "past operations" may refer to Tehran’s launching of more than 300 missiles and drones at Israel in April in response to Israel's suspected bombing of Iran's embassy compound in Damascus.

Damage from the Iranian attack was minimal with some analysts saying the response appeared to be measured to avoid a broader conflict.